I'll vote for Maine Coons. I have 2 of them and they're almost like puppies more than cats. Very curious and sweet. Brushing mine isn't bad but then I also keep the nether regions trimmed on them so that helps keep them from getting as dirty.

Himies are also sweet cats. I volunteer at a cat rescue and we had a Himie there recently. She was actually adopted by us a couple years ago, thrown out for who knows what, lived on the streets for 6 months before someone took her to another rescue and got our info from her microchip (we're a 2ndary contact on all of our cats for this reason). I had to drive to campus district to pick her up. This is normally a 30 minute drive but it was the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas so traffic was heavier. She walked right into the carrier at the other rescue, chattered to me the whole way to our rescue (about 1 hour drive) and walked right into the exam kennel with no problems. Nothing phased her.

Hopefully her new owner will take much better care of the sweetheart :)